refused to consider higher tax rates. timing is also a sticking point here. here isjohnboehnerthisweekend. >> 2013 should be the year to begin to solve our debt through tax reform and entitlement reform. together we should avert the fiscal cliff in a manner that ensures 2013 finally is that year. >> no accident, by the way, it was boehner who did the republican response to the president this weekend. the president holds the most leverage in the next two months, directly after the election and before tax rates expire. when the threat of a tax increase on the middle class hangs over the negotiations. republicans would like to try out the negotiations to see the political climate is better for them in the next congress. the big question is how much did the white house learn from the failed debt talk to 2011? will the president bypass leader ship and begin to try to deal directly with the republican senators who have sounded the most open to compromise. >> i think there is a deal. the ying and yang of this is we know there have to be revenues. look, i haven't met a wealthy republ

boehnersaidthey would continue to staunchly oppose tax rate increases, but on sunday. bill kristolly to republican house members it's not just them versus the president, it's them versus history. >> i think republicans will have to give in much more than they think. four presidents in the last election vo won 50% of the vote twice. roosevelt, eisenhower, reagan, and obama. republicans in the house will be able to get some concessions, but i think there will be a big budget deal next year, and it will be much moran obama budget deal than paul ryan budget deal. elections have consequences. karen capehart, did you expect anything this big this fast? bill kristol is influential with republicans in washington. i'm stunned with what i'm hearing? >> i almost fell out of my chair when boehner said revenues. the idea of increasing revenues. that's a central argument that we have been having over the last four years, and the very expensive i told you so i guess. if we're going to get to this problem, we have to deal with revenues, we can't just do it all on the spending side. >> jonathan capeh

is there to do? the signals fromjohnboehner, thespeaker of the house, are that he's got some more leverage with his republican caucus than he had back in the day, and that there is talk of coming up with more revenue. maybe not calling it a tax increase, not a rate increase, but finding some way to raise some more money. >> right. you know, andrea, i hate to sound an optimistic note when it comes to politics, but i do think the signals coming out of john boehner's sort of world, and out of president obama's statement last week is that there can be some common ground here, that president obama, i think, clearly has some leverage due to what happened in the, in his own race, as well as at the senate level. so i think he has that. and then john boehner, i think a little bit more questionable in how much more leverage he has within his own caucus, but we shall see. if both of them can sort of say, look, let's do this, this is important to the country, let's move on, we can disagree about lots of other things, but we're going to compromise and move forward. whether that compromise is not raisin

for the democratic leadership,speakerboehneralsointends to stay on, so we'll be seeing some of these elections take place but the big surprise is not a surprise, she's staying put. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell on capitol hill for us. kelly, thanks so much. >>> there is an awful lot happening from capitol hill and during what is expected to be the lame duck session i'll talk with maxine waters next. >>> then just over two hours until the president's news conference, first one difference re-election. what do you think the first question will be? reporters asking about what? tweet me at thomas a. roberts or find me on facebook, thomas a. roberts on msnbc. again? it's embarrassing it's embarrassing! we can see you carl. we can totally see you. come on you're better than this...all that prowling around. yeah, you're the king of the jungle. have you thought about going vegan carl? hahaha!! you know folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than antelope with night-vision goggles. nice! get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you f

-like reaction, not a cliff-like reaction, and the leaders of wall street will helpjohnboehnertomake a better deal rather than pressuring him to make a deal that's bad for the economy and the fear that we don't get a deal will lead to getting a deal because the pressure correctly applied. >> the issue here is will we go over the cliff? i stopped saying cliff. sorry. okay, okay. but i think the question is do we get to the grassy gradual slope or not and then level roonlg. this is the first time since 2010 that's obama's had the leverage with republicans and saying there, you mentioned that poll yesterday adding to the leverage because, voters, you think to go over this so-called cliff and referring to the nervousness. who will you blame? >> republicans. >> republicans. that's more leverage of obama on that question and look at. yeah, he didn't draw that red line as krystal said at the beginning but as close to be an absolutist for incomes over $250,000 as he can be. this is an issue that he ran on. this bothers him ruled by republicans two years ago and taxes are not where they should be hist

are already digging in their heels.speakerboehner, senatorminority leader mitch mcconnell, paul ryan. all of them saying they will fight the president on taxes. all of them saying the president doesn't have a mandate. but president obama has something to say about that. >> i have one mandate. i have a mandate to help middle class families and families that are working hard to try to get into the middle class. that's my mandate. >> this is a clear message. it's what americans voted for a week ago. are you sure you want this fight, republicans? democrat from pennsylvania chuck fatah and ezra klein, msnbc policy analyst. he's writing about the fight over taxes today and the piece is called "the big question: how, not whether, to raise taxes." thank you for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> good to be here. >> congressman, do you think republicans will make a deal or is this 2010 with the tea party all over again? >> well, what the public needs to understand is the income tax system is not fair to them. there is a report done by the congress each year by the joint committee on taxation. sh

. they weren't fighting for the top jobs. that's going to stayjohnboehner. they'reactually fighting for the number four job in the house. the contest was tom price against one of the precious few republican women in the house, cathy mcmorris rodgers. and there were some interesting politics at work here. miss mcmorris rodgers had the support of speaker john boehner, but tom price had the support of this guy, the republican party's vice presidential nominee, paul ryan. in the end, it was cathy mcmorris rodgers who won. paul ryan's guy lost. and so even as they lose the presidency, thanks to a devastating gender gap in the polls, and at the same time they send even fewer republican women to congress than were there before, republicans did today pick for this small, low-profile national republican number four leadership role an actual woman. and that's the best they've ever done. that's the highest ranking gop woman there has ever been in the house. back over on the senate side, republicans are faced with a dilemma set up for them by john mccain, as i was just discussing with bill burt

are more about let's get things done. here is house speakerjohnboehneryesterdayafter meeting with the president. >> i believe that the framework that i've outlined in our meeting today is consistent with the president's call for a fair and balanced approach. to show our seriousness, we've put revenue on the table. >> now, in politics, much of power is about perception. in a post re-election 2012, perceptions are mighty different. here's the president at his first post re-election press conference on wednesday. >> if there was one thing that everybody understood was a big difference between myself and mr. romney, it was when it comes to how we reduce our deficit, i argued for a balanced responsible approach and part of that included making sure that the wealthiest americans pay a little bit more. i think every voter out there understood that that was an important debate. and the majority of voters agreed with me. by the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. >> now, that is not the president obama of yesteryear or even last year. this week the preside

the election,speakerboehnersatesaid the fight is over and it is i now the law of the land. do these refusals mean the fight may not be over? >> i think the federal government is prepared to run exchanges in the states that don't cooperate. speaker boehner is right, the congress will no longer talk about repealing the law. i think if congress we will see pb cans raising portions of the law they think are controversial or may be able to attract democratic votes and peel back smaller pieces of the health reform law. >> what's your best guess that the the states will adhere to the deadline. mid december ito make their attentions known. >> i think it is important to note the health reform law, people have to select plans beginning in ok of next year and the plans go live in the year following. there's not a lot of time between now and then. states want to run their state exchanges we will know by december which ones are ready and which aren't. >>> ahead, getting to the truth about ben benz. a house member who grilled general petraeus on captiol hill joins us in just a moment. yeah,